FreeNAS installer rebooting after 4 minutes.

[aaronouthier]

Hello!
I have a Server system, a SuperMicro PDSMI+, with an 8 GB CompactFlash card connected to an IDE to CF cable, as this system has a dedicated IDE channel for use with CF cards. I have also tried installing to a second USB Flash drive. I am booting the installer from a 4 GB USB stick which was written with the FreeNAS 9.3 Install ISO using dd command from a Linux box.

Now, I have determined the cause of the Issue, but not a solution.

This system has a Watchdog timer circuit on the Motherboard. The watchdog is DISABLED in the BIOS, however, something in FreeNAS seems to be enabling it. Windows and Linux both install and work properly on this system. I have been able to install to the CF using a USB->CF card reader and a different computer. The FreeNAS system gets installed, but at the last minute, it fails at GRUB install. Says something about finding a Mapping for DA1. This prevents the System from booting from the CF card.

Help!

 

[aaronouthier]

Forgot to mention:
I know it is the watchdog circuit that is the culprit, as there is a jumper on the MotherBoard, which selects whether to reset the server, or generate an NMI. When set to reset the system, the system resets, when set to NMI, the system generates an NMI. This happens exactly 4 minutes after system POSTs, which coincides with the 4 minute Watchdog timeout.

 

[dlavigne]

According to https://bugs.freenas.org/issues/7337, watchdog is disabled in 9.3...

 

[aaronouthier]

Ok, watchdogd is a software process, and is unrelated to my hardware watchdog.
I have a hardware watchdog chip in my motherboard, which I have disabled in the BIOS. Something in FreeNAS start-up routine is somehow forcing it on.
I think I need to save the bootlog. I have a great deal of experience with Linux, and I know that there, there is a dmesg file (I don't recall the location off-hand). Is there something similar in FreeBSD? I would like to save a copy so that I can examine it outside of the FreeNAS environment.

 

[dlavigne]

Yup, /var/log/dmesg.boot, or if you've just booted, type dmesg to read it.

 

[aaronouthier]

Yup, already found it after I last posted here. typing "dmesg | grep watchdog" says something about "wmwd0 enabled" and "<= 360 seconds remaining".
Going to try to mount a Fat32 formatted flash drive and save a copy of dmesg there.

 

[aaronouthier]

Researching this problem online, I found this:
http://freebsd.1045724.n5.nabble.com/Supermicro-BIOS-s-watchdog-feature-td4041350.html
It appears that there is something unimplemented in watchdogd and ichwd, but I'm not sure I completely understand the conversation. There are some source code .diff patches by 2 different people. Both are supposed to fix the problem, I think, but neither one is complete or finished, they're just crude hacks to get'er done.